Category: Outlets – Forbes

Swipe Right for Verified Dating Profiles

Posted on January 5, 2020

Online dating safety2FORBES – Jan 2 – According to a survey published by Statista, 49% of dating app users stated in a January 2019 survey that they were using online dating services," while the same percentage of respondents 18-34 years old had either met a romantic partner online or knew someone who has. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 61% of people believe online dating is easier and more efficient than other ways of meeting people. In 2014, the FBI reported that 6K romance scam complaints were made, with losses totaling $86M. The most common scams involved spam and identity theft. According to a report from Sky News, there was a 382% increase in reported crimes related to online dating in the U.K. between 2011 and 2016.

ID verification would be a smart and innovative solution for verifying legitimate identities and authenticating profiles. Bumble and Wild are great examples, as they require all users to upload a photo of themselves in one of 100 poses to begin interaction. This data is verified manually. If you're looking to implement ID verification, here are some things you'll want to consider:

  1. Only use official and verified data sources.
  2. Use multiple sources.
  3. Verify your provider.

by Tony Raval
See full article at Forbes

IAC to Spin-Off Match Group by Q2 ’20

Posted on December 27, 2019

Matchgroup portfolioFORBES – Dec 27 – As part of this transaction, MTCH shareholders will receive one share of New Match and $3/share in consideration (which they can choose to receive in cash or additional shares of New Match worth $3), while IAC will receive ~$680M ($3/share) in cash. IAC shareholders will receive 2.35 MTCH shares per IAC share. If MTCH public shareholders choose to receive their consideration in the form of MTCH shares, additional cash of $160M will be paid to IAC, reducing the distribution ratio to 2.32. IAC may potentially sell New Match equity shares worth $1.5B, the proceeds of which will be paid to IAC. IAC will transfer its complete debt of $1.7B to New Match, while MTCH will borrow $500M to fund the cash consideration of $840M ($680M + $160M). The transaction is expected to be completed by Q2 '20.

by Joe Cornell
See full article at Forbes

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Barry Diller Begins Again

Posted on November 19, 2019

Iac barry diller nov 2019FORBES INDIA – Nov 18 – Barry Diller, the former Hollywood mogul has ground his way to a $4.2B technology fortune. At IAC he has built and spun off ten publicly traded companies, including Ticketmaster, travel giant Expedia and Match Group, Tinder's parent company, worth a combined $70B. "Spinning off Match is a process of renewal in that IAC gets to start inventing again. We are shrinking in order to grow again… shrinking with $5B of cash," he says. Former Diller lieutenant Dara Khosrowshahi, now the CEO of Uber Technologies, says, "Barry's like a shark. If he stops swimming, he dies. So he just keeps going." Diller's current hand looks challenging. Match shares were falling after Facebook said it would redouble its online dating efforts. There are also lawsuits. The co-founders of Tinder, Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, claim they were deprived of billions when the app was consolidated by Match. Diller responds sharply: "Sean Rad is a blowhard and a bad actor." Facebook, Diller adds, has yet to register as a threat to Match. "I'm not overly worried," he quips, then brings up the possibility of regulation. "I think that there are real issues," he says, turning his attention to Google. "It's okay to take our money as advertisers. It's not fine, in my opinion, to then try and get our customers."

by Antoine Gara
See full article at Forbes India

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Mark Zuckerberg Let Tinder Get Special Access to Users’ Data

Posted on November 8, 2019

Tinder logo classicFORBES – Nov 8 – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered entering the online dating business as far back as 2014, but he put the idea on the back burner, instead giving Tinder special access to its users' data, leaked emails between top executives show. The leaked correspondence is part of an ongoing lawsuit between Facebook and Six4Three, a now-defunct app developer that sued Facebook in 2015 for restricting user data access, alleging the actions were uncompetitive. The correspondence shows how perilously close Tinder came to losing key access to Facebook user information that helped Tinder grow rapidly in its early years, when members often used their Facebook logins to access the app. When Facebook further restricted the kind of information third-party apps could access after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in March 2018, Tinder's app crashed. Tinder was on Facebook's radar in 2013. Zuckerberg wrote in January 2014 to two executives: "Tinder's growth is especially alarming to me because their product is built completely on Facebook data, and it's much better than anything we've built for recommendations using the same corpus." In 2014, Facebook announced it would start preventing third-party app developers from having access to data on users' friends, including birth dates, photos and pages they liked. The company gave a May 2015 deadline for developers to comply with its new set of access rules. However, Zuckerberg made some companies and apps an exception. Tinder was one. Facebook agreed to give Tinder a special data-sharing agreement, internally known as "whitelists," if the dating app shared trademark rights on "MOMENTS." which was the planned name for a photo app that Facebook wanted to launch, an email exchange in March 2015 showed. When asked about this agreement in 2018, a spokeswoman for Tinder said: "Tinder never received special treatment, data or access related to this dispute or its resolution." Other dating apps that had whitelist agreements with Facebook include Bumble, Badoo, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge and jSwipe.

by Angel Au-Yeung
See full article at Forbes

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Bare Dating, a New Dating App, Tackles the Problem of Unsolicited Nudes

Posted on October 19, 2019

Bare dating iconFORBES – Oct 16 – Users of Bare Dating can upload a photo but choose how much of it to reveal. Founded by Alex Sergent, a former journalist and founder of dating events company VEE, Gillian Myhill, and Phil Beesley, the platform has already secured a six-figure amount from an angel investor, and the co-founders are currently considering other proposals before they embark on the next round of investment. The platform is currently in beta testing on mobile optimized website, and they hope to have apps launched by the end of the year.

by Franki Cookney
See full article at Forbes

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Lumen Is the Dating App Solution for the Over-50 Crowd

Posted on October 15, 2019

Lumen logoFORBES – Oct 14 – Lumen is a Tinder-like dating app aimed at the over-50 demographic. Lumen users are able to start a limited number of conversations every day, in order to cut down on spammy behavior. Messages also disappear after 72 hours if there is no reply. This puts the focus on quality conversation. Every user must have at least one image of themselves and upon sign-up every user is photo-verified. The minimum icebreaker message must be at least 50 characters. The average user age is 56. The gender ratio is ~50/50. There is also a premium version that allows for more conversations per day and seeing which members have saved the user as a favorite and enhanced search.

by Curtis Silver
See full article at Forbes

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Match.com Sued by FTC for Using Scammers’ Profiles to Lure Subscribers

Posted on September 26, 2019

Match group logo blue 2019FTC – Sep 26 – The Federal Trade Commission is suing Match Group for allegedly using fake accounts to get more people to sign up for paid subscriptions. "We believe that Match.com conned people into paying for subscriptions via messages the company knew were from scammers," said Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. Match allows users to create profiles free of charge, but prohibits them from responding to messages without paying. The FTC alleges that millions of contacts that generated Match's "You caught his eye" notices came from accounts the company had already flagged as likely to be fraudulent. By contrast, Match prevented existing subscribers from receiving emails from a suspected fraudulent account. In a statement, Match Group dismissed the FTC accusations as "completely meritless" and says the allegations are supported by "consciously misleading figures." The FTC also alleges Match deceptively induced consumers to subscribe to Match.com by promising them a free six-month subscription if they did not "meet someone special," without adequately disclosing that consumers must meet numerous requirements before the company would honor the guarantee.

See full article at FTC website and Forbes

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Ashley Madison Has Signed 30 Million Cheating Spouses

Posted on August 26, 2019

Ashleymadison mobile app screenshotFORBES – Aug 24 – More people have signed up to Ashley Madison since the 2015 hack than before. And that is extraordinary. As things stand today, Ashley Madison has amassed ~32M new users since the hack. Back in 2015, the company was active in some 50 countries, directly marketing in more than 20. Now the focus is only North America. Ashley Madison brought in Ernst and Young in 2018 to go through all the systems, inch by inch. They verified all the automated fembots were gone.

by Zak Doffman
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Waves Is a New YCombinator Dating Startup

Posted on August 15, 2019

Waves foundersFORBES – Aug 15 – Brothers Emerson and Morris Hsieh understood the social taboos around discussing particular kinks and fetishes and created Waves, the dating app that openly allows for users to match based on their sexual compatibility. Waves is currently a part of YCombinator's Summer 2019 batch. The Hsieh brothers had initially set out to make a medicine technology startup after being admitted into YCombinator in June. However, given the lack of traction, they pivoted into creating Waves after hearing from friends and colleagues about the difficulties of finding sexually compatible partners.

by Frederick Daso
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Gen.G and Bumble Create All-Female Gaming Partnership

Posted on August 7, 2019

Bumble gengFORBES – Aug 7 – Last month at Epic Games inaugural World Cup finals for Fortnite, the most popular video game in the world, not a single woman competed in the event. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney estimates 35% of the game's 250M players are women. "Part of the reason women don't participate is that they are afraid that they'll do bad," said Fortnite player Tina Perez. Gen.G, the global esports organization, signed Perez and other female players and created the first and only competitive all-female Fortnite team in the world. Gen.G. is now partnering with Bumble to rebrand as Gen.G Empowered by Bumble, or Team Bumble for short. Bumble is adding a "gaming" badge to Bumble BFF profiles to make it easier for other gamers to find each other. Users can select "gaming" as an area of interest, and then filter their matches to find others who are also interested in gaming in their area.

by Olivia Abrams
See full article at Forbes

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